German inventor Franz Reichelt was so confident in his 1912 parachute jacket that he jumped off the Eiffel Tower to test it out. His hubris was unfortunately unfounded and he fell to his death in front of a crowd.

A bootlegger arrested by the Minneapolis police displays her apparatus for dispensing "wet goods" during prohibition. April 10, 1924. The term bootlegging was popularized when thousands of city dwellers would sell liquor from flasks they kept in their boot leg all across major cities.

Women of Fauberg Treme, New Orleans and their dog. Faubourg Treme is the oldest black neighborhood in America, and the origin of the southern civil rights movement and birthplace of jazz.

The man in this photograph is dead. (Before the photo was taken might I add). In England, deceased were usually photographed laying in their caskets. In the US it was traditional to pose the deceased as if he or she were still living. Photographers had their tricks such as stands and supports, makeup to hide pale skin, and even methods of opening the eyes and retouching the photo to subtly alter the blank expression of death. Children were usually posed in bed or in the arms of their parents.

After the postal service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with the railway and city carriers to their destinations. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples.

Little known football fact. Gallaudet University school for the deaf football team invented the huddle to keep their plays secret.